YouTube Explains Its Copyright Policy…With Puppets

Are you confused about YouTube’s copyright policy? Would you like clarifications from one of the site’s own lawyers? Are you Chris Hardwick? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, you may be interested in a recent video from YouTube’s Help channel, which delves into the topic of copyrights using a pair of kid-friendly puppets.

The puppets featured in the video come from the Glove and Boots channel, which creators Vincent Bova and Damien Eckhardt-Jacobi (who you may recognize as the guys behind the puppeted treasure hunt We Lost Our Gold) have built up to a decent-sized following thanks to its easy-to-understand, G-rated explanations of pop culture. In YouTube’s video, Glove and Boots’ two main characters–Mario and Fafa–deal with some copyright issues and consult YouTube lawyer and very good sport Fred von Lohmann for help. He provides many handy, annotated links along the way, for those stodgy customers who would rather read a copyright policy than have a puppet explain it to them.

The use of puppets (and no, these aren’t those silly adult-oriented puppets that are so hip these days) is clearly YouTube’s attempt to connect with the young people who most wantonly infringe copyrights by reuploading other creators’ videos. I guess YouTube thinks that some kids may not understand copyright law, but I think they get the gist. The more pressing issue is that there are surly teens and they don’t give a god damn about YouTube lawyers and their ridiculous puppets.

Of course, partnering with Glove and Boots is still a great way for YouTube to put a cartoony face on its blandest discussion topics. Can we have puppets explain the advertising partner program? What about CPM? The redesign? The possibilities are endless.